Standards (1890-1920)
The Committee of Ten, 1893
Every subject which is taught at all in a secondary school should be taught in the same way and to the same extent to every pupil as long as he pursues it, no matter what the probable destination of the pupil may be or at what point his education is to cease.
The Committee of Ten
A Faithful Mirror
The Committee of Ten's 1893 report attempted to standardize the high school curriculum and to make more uniform the curricular articulation between high school and post-secondary education. The committee also attempted to prescribe a choice of four courses of study in the high school, including Classical, Latin-Scientific, Modern Languages, and English. The major difference between the courses was the type and amount of foreign language studied.
Analysis of The Committee of Ten
Quick Facts
- The National Education Association constituted the committee in 1892.
- Harvard University president Charles Eliot chaired the committee.
- The committee included five university presidents, once college faculty member, two representatives of private schools, one nationally prominent educator, and one representative of public secondary schools.
- It investigated the problems associated with college entrance requirements.
- It discussed high school curricular issues and made recommendations.
Members
- Charles Eliot, President of Harvard
- James Angell, President of University of Michigan
- James Baker, President of University of Colorado
- Richard Jesse, President of University of Missouri
- James Taylor, President of Vassar College
- William T. Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education
- Henry King, Oberlin College
- James Mackenzie, headmaster of the Lawrenceville School of New Jersey
- John Tetlow, headmaster of Girls' High School in Boston
- Oscar Robinson, principal of the Albany public high school
In the report, the Committee of Ten articulated three principles it believed should guide public secondary education.
- The committee rejected curricular differentiation and believed that all students, regardless of their destination after high school to the work force or to college, should study the same subjects in the same way.
- The committee proposed a limited elective system whereby high schools would organize subjects into courses of study but that individual students would then choose from those available options.
- The committee stated that if high schools followed its recommendations and offered some or all of nine subjects in the manner prescribed and outlined by the Committee, then every college and university should accept those courses as adequate for admission.
